Snowy Day

It really is snowing quite heavily today.  I am up in my craft room working on another quilt.  Hubby is working on the computer in the kitchen. He is trying to housebreak the new puppy by taking her out every 20 minutes. She is compliant when he takes her out, otherwise she pees on the kitchen flour. I was trying to decide if I wanted a piece of baklava.  For Christmas Eve dinner I chose baklava for dessert.  The best place to purchase that is Shatila in Dearborn.  When I arrived on the 23rd of December I took a number.  Mine was D#90 and they were serving D#33. At some point a man with a number D#71 gave up and I took his number.  A while later the manager announced that those who wanted mixed trays, already packaged , could come to the cash register. I was among the 20 people who ran to the cashier to buy, all of them pushing and shoving and most of them doing so in Arabic. I got my package and went out to the parking lot. (I had thought myself lucky to get a parking space) A delivery van was parked behind me and I had to wait 20 minutes for it to move. When I got onto the Southfield expressway, I went about one mile before all three lanes came to a stop because of an accident. The baklava was delicious and some was left over as peoples appetites were not up to snuff. That will go with a hot cup of tea.

A Christmas to Remember

There were 17 of us for Christmas dinner. All but one of them stayed overnight during the holidays.  Then the disaster happened! Monday morning the stomach flu hit Molly, by Monday night Martha was down. Early Wednesday Hubby and Tom had it.  It ended up going through 11 of us. (literally)
We all got together for my Mom's birthday on the 22nd before everyone got sick, so she was spared the virus. She said she was grateful that no one came to visit after that.

Another Day

We are not going to Baltimore because Mom fell yesterday.  She says she didn't fall but won't say how she got on the floor. She didn't feel well all day. I sat there yesterday until 3PM while she slept and came back at 7pm.  This morning I called her and she said she was dressed, nothing hurts and she just feels sleepy. It gives us three extra days to get ready for the puppy and Christmas.

Getting ready for Christmas

All my shopping is done and the house is nice and clean(that is because we hosted the Lions Christmas party on Sunday). Now all we have to do is set up all the beds and mattresses for 16 overnight guests for Christmas.  They will start arriving on the 19th of December.  Unfortunately we won't be home because we will be in Baltimore on the 19th for daughter Amy's graduation with her master's degree. By the 21st almost everyone will be here. We will also be picking up our new puppy that we will be raising for Leader Dog. We will name her Mindy. She is a black, Labrador-golden retriever cross. The dog we raised last year, Penny is almost finished with her training and in a month will be assigned to a blind person. We are very proud of her. Honestly we didn't think she had a prayer. That day is also my Mom's 96th birthday, but we will celebrate on the 22nd. So it looks like a busy season with a 7 week old puppy.

Obedience Class

We took Penny to the Leader Dog obedience class, like we do every Tuesday night. She was slightly more distracted than usual as the class was outside. The teacher had brought a singing frog  as a distraction for the dogs,  All through class Penny had only one goal - KILL THAT FROG. After class the teacher told us we had done a wonderful job with a difficult dog and not to take it personally when she is career changed.  (That is the nice way they put it when she flunks out.)

Quilting

I have made close to 50 quilts in my lifetime and most of them have been hand quilted.  I have been trying to learn to do machine quilting.  I have a beautiful Bernina machine with a stitch regulator but it is not as easy as it looks. I tried a baby quilt that I want to give as a shower gift but it just didn't look right so I ripped out the machine quilting and I will get out my hoop tonight.

Penny Eats Everything

Penny turned  one year old last week. She is a really good dog and can be very well behaved, except, she eats everything. Anything that falls to the ground disappears immediately. There are the usual, napkins, paper towels and Kleenexes. She also eats any scrap of paper, or plastic.  We have removed from her mouth wine corks, bottle caps and Swifter dusters. (well she swallowed the Swifter duster and we had to bring it back up. ) In my sewing room she has swallowed straight pins and enough fabric to make a small quilt. Hubby thinks the colored poop is funny. We cannot let her run even in the backyard because 3 times now she has eaten something toxic and goes through a few hours of vomiting and diarrhea. We have cordoned off the rhubarb and we know she isn't eating the rhododendron or hydrangea.  I personally picked all the toadstool out of the front yard today.